mitchell reports," fight night. the president and the speaker facing off. >> do you know what people are fed up with most of all? they're fed up with the town where compromise has become a dirty word. >> the sad truth is that the president wanted a blarng check six months ago and he wants a blank check today. this is just not going to happen. >> if you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of congress know. >> message delivered and received. switch boards are jammed on capitol hill for a while even the websites crash. will the president really veto a short-term deal? and can the speaker even get one passed? >> i do think that we're going to have some work to do to get it passed. but i think we can do it. >> plus, is the white house

crying wolf? just at this hour white house budget director and top debt ceiling director. and from capitol hill bob corker and democratic congressman john larson. and can anyone get a laugh out of the debt crisis? nbc's brian williams can with david letterman. >> my role here has been to bum out your audience about debt crisis. >> good day i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. with the debt battle entering the final round we think just one week from the treasury's default date, house republican leaders are pushing for a vote on their plan tomorrow. democrats are waiting to see what happens before sending their proposal to the floor. either way the two sides are sharply divided and president obama may be out of the loop. jack lou is the white house budget director and joins me now from the sunny north lawn of the white house. not a sunny mood, though, today in the white house because we're still seeing such a deep divide.

it's not even clear and that's a question of course for republicans if the speaker can get this out on the floor and get it passed. what private negotiations, re-assure us that there are some conversations going on between the so-called grown ups and some daylight between the house plan and the harry reid plan? >> it's good to be with you, andrea. i think where we are right now is congress has to go through the next day. the house is going to have to take up the bill that they know sun acceptable to us and i believe is unacceptable to the senate. then the house and the senate will have to compromise. as the president said last night that's what the american people expect all of us in washington to do. >> an article today about the president's warning said the administration may have made a tra steejic mistake in warning too soon that the market would react negatively. it undercuts the government's

negotiations position. is august 2nd real seasoned do you have a risk of sounding as though you're crying wolf because so far nothing's happened, it's been a nonevent on the markets? >> august 2nd is very real. if you look at the markets we never predicted a day when things would change. one thing is clear, if the markets believe that this is not going to get resolved, nobody should feel comfortable that they could live with the consequences of that. i think that if you look at what the markets are telling us is they think we'll get our work done. we've always gotten it done before, and they believe we'll get it done now. if we don't, then i think one should not be comfortable with what comes next. in terms of the timing, august 2nd is real. washington is always looking for room to push things to the last minute. we don't have more time. this has to get resolved. >> what about the report in "the washington post" today that treasury receipts have been

coming in higher than thought, tracks revenues so you might have a little bit of play. there's an auction on august 4th, $84 billion was the number that the fact is europe has its own problems and u.s. treasuries are still the safest place to go buy? >> i know there are a lot of people outside trying to count the hour to hour and day-to-day cash flows. no one has come to me with any evidence that there is more room than august 2nd. these are very large numbers. a lot of transactions, tens of millions in transactions. i think anyone who's counting on their being a little bit of wiggle room is kind of looking for something that if it's not there everyone's in trouble. it's a mistake to even be asking that question. we have projections they are the best projections available. i've seen no reason to go beyond august 2nd in terms of where we think the deadline is. >> what mystified me and

confusing to a lot of other people i read about it in "the washington post" last night's speech from the president sounded more like a political speech, a 2012 speech. he was talking about a balanced approach the very day that the white house signed off on the harry reid approach which was not balanced because it didn't have any taxes in it. the bottom line is why come out and give the speech he gave last night when he had already endorsed a fall back position which did not include taxes, the harry reid position? >> i have to say i've read some some of those comments, i don't think they're right. i don't think that last night's speech was a political speech. the president was talk og the american people about core american values. something that outside of washington everyone knows the

common sense. when there are disagreements you come to the reasonable center. you don't create an economic crisis to try and gain leverage. it's just not the way we've done things in the past. it's not the way a great nation bebehaves. if -- behaves. if you look at the proposal to senator reid put forward he doesn't pretend it's a long-term solution to our debt problems. the president's call for a balanced approach is still very much the way we need to approach our long-term deficit reduction. we have a challenge to get from now through next week there has been a demand made that there has to be dollar for dollar deficit reduction as part of that. that's an individual demand the peeker put out there. i believe senator reid met that requirement. the president said it was a much better approach and it's totally consistent with the president's principles that we need to have everything on the table. >> jack, bottom line, you say that august 2nd is real and we

should take this seriously. if it gets to that point, where they give you something that is shorter term and doesn't have everything that the president wants is he going to risk the soundness of the american -- the u.s. dollar? is he going to risk default and not sign something that comes to his desk? >> i think that the house knows that the approach that they're taking is unacceptable to the president. i don't believe that it could pass the united states senate. i think that the congress is going to have to work on sending the president a compromise because it's not going to come to that. that bill is not going to come to the white house. >> jack lew thank you very much. and republican senator bob corker of tennessee serves on the banking committee and has been deeply involved in these talks. senator, there you heard it. the white house bargaining position is that there is no give here that the president will not -- first of all won't even get something.

in fact, we heard from congressman jordan today that he doesn't think that speaker boehner's proposal can get 217 votes. >> yeah, andrea i'm not hearing everything perfectly, i apologize. let me just say that i'm actually -- i woke up today and felt semiconspired about where we are. we finally i think in the house and senate are focussing on the issue. i think people realize this debt ceiling is a time for us to be talking about a topic. the debt ceiling issue, though, is not the thing that that's going to be the downgrade for our country. it's going to be if we don't address these deficits for the longer term. and so we're finally beginning to focus on how do we dramatically reduce the amount of deficit spending that's taking place in this country. it's taken us a long time to get to this point. what i see happening inside these chambers is we're finally on the right topic. to me that's obviously some progress. i do hope that over the course

of the next few weeks, the reason is markets aren't panicking, andrea, august 2nd kind of is and kind of isn't. there's a refunding issue on august 9th. but i think most folks know that we have a little bit of time. all of these banks and lending institutions, financial institutions have people that are tracking cash flow. so i think we're at a period right now where we've got a little time to do something that is sensible that actually really addresses the deficit spending that's taking place in our country. and the debt ceiling has been that line in the sand that's caused us to focus on it. but the bigger issue for our country downgrade wise is really getting these deficits under control and i think we're beginning to look at some solutions that may well do that and to me someone who wants to solve the problem that's kind of uplifting if you want to know the truth. >> i think i'm hearing something from you, though, that suggests and so please tell me if i'm

wrong here, that as long as you all are talking about real deficit reduction, which you've been talking about for quite some time and you have a lot of relationships across party lines that you think perhaps the house republicans should separate out the debt ceiling and deal with that as a separate issue or come up with some way to finesse this? >> no, i think andrea, you know, there's been a lot of debate about whether or not the debt ceiling should have been used for this debate or not. i think that it was the right place and rhetorically have asked questions on the senate floor if it wasn't for the debt ceiling what are we going to use to make us actually address this issue? i do think we're going to come to resolve on the debt ceiling. i do. whether it's august 2nd or a little bit later, again, the markets are sfis catesed and they know that we've got some time. there is some time, okay. that doesn't mean we shouldn't address the issue. i think in the debt ceiling issue will come a solution to the deficits i'm hopeful of

that. i think that finally as i mentioned, we're finally focused on the right topic. everybody knows and these markets know if we were to raise the debt ceiling and not address the longer term issues of deficits we're going to have a downgrade in this country. there's no question. the very thick that the president and others have been talking about is going to happen if we don't take these responsible steps we need to take to address these issues. so i think we have a chance now over this next two or three week period to actually focus on both of those and to do something that's good for our country. now whether we blow it or not we'll see, there is that glimmer of hope at least in me over the last 24 hours because we're finally focused on the right thing. >> jack lew was saying we don't have that time. he says that august 2nd is real that we don't have that much flexibility. you just said two or three weeks. that's a much longer time frame. >> there are some complicating

issues. i mean, there aren't the issues of social security checks and all of those kind of things. this there were, they'd already be sending those letters out. let's face it. we've shown that's not really -- the issue there are some complication around some refundings. that are going to take place on august 9th. so i'm not trying to say that we don't have some issues before us. but it's not like we've got to act in a panicky mode. let's sit down now. we've got a couple weeks. we finally are on the right topic, which unfortunately, you know, takes us a while to get to the right topic here. and let's make sure that we put in place something as we raise this debt ceiling that dramatically changes the character of spending in this country. which i've been advocating for a longing long time. i think both sides, both houses finally, andrea, are on that topic, i believe we're going to possibly come to a good outcome here. >> you think that there's going

to be a good outcome. let me play a little bit of what congressman jim jordan had to say today. he's projecting that the republicans in the caucus are not going to go along with the speaker's plan right now. let's watch. >> we appreciate the speaker's house work in keeping tax increases out of the plan. if you look at this it's about a $7 billion reduction in spending from where we're currently at. we advocated something much more. i am confident as of this morning that there are not 218 republicans in support of the plan. >> so i don't know we're almost out of time. i just wanted to point out that you see a glimmer of hope, on the other side of the hill there's a lot of dysfunction going on in the house caucus. >> i'm glad you brought that up. i don't want your listening audience to be misled by what i'm saying. i'm not saying that there's any proposal before us yet. >> which would have the votes. >> no. i think we have to be far, far more serious about actually addressing the deficits.

but andrea, at least we're on the right topic, finely, okay, that's progress around here. so i don't really want to speak to the reid and boehner proposals as we begin to actually focus on a result now, not political blame which is where we've been for so long. i don't want to spook to their proposals. >> got it. >> i do want to say we're actually having some discussions now that they bear some fruit. i too for what it's worth want to see something far, far stronger than anything i've seen so far. i think we may actually get there. >> thank you so much senator bob corker. developing right now the president and vice president have both just paid their respects and offered condolences to the people of norway by visiting the embassy, the norweigian embassy here in washington. writing in the condolence book there, quote, we are all heartbroken by the tragic loss of so many people particularly of youth with fullness of life ahead of them.

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developing now, seven-term oregon congressman david wu has announced he will in fact resign amid allegations he had a sexual encount we are a teenage daughter of a friend. wu responded in part saying i cannot care for my family the way i wish while seshing in congress and fighting these very serious allegations. the well being of my children must come before anything else. with great sadness i therefore intend to resign upon the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis.

with only seven days before the default deadline divisions are getting worse. congressman john larson of connecticut is the chairman of the democratic caucus and joins us now. congressman only yesterday jay carney at the white house praised senator reid's plan. he said senator reid's plan is a reasonable approach that should receive the support of both parties and we hope the house republicans will agree to this plan so america can avoid defaulting on our obligation for the first time in our history. the ball is in their court. the reid plan does not include taxes. you said a cut only deal is not tenable. what is your position now? are you in disagreement with the president on this? >> no, we're not in disagreement. of course, we wanted to see a balanced approach. but andrea, unfortunately we're seeing anything but balance. what we've seen is republicans walk out on the vice president. republicans walk out on mccome and reid. republicans walk out on the gang

of six and republicans walk out on the president. the time is running out. of course, we would prefer something balanced and we would prefer to see revenues as part of the mixture. but we're heartened by the fact and hairy reid's proposal that there's nothing in there with regard to social security, with regard to medicare, and with regard to medicaid which are vitally important programs. to the people we're sworn to serve. we'd like to see a balance so we can enhance programs going forward. i think that discussion can be had at another day. right now i think with the nation running so perilously close to having bond ratings dropped and within the republican conference them not even being able to agree on boehner's proposal, right now i think harry reid has got the best path forward for us to make sure that the country doesn't default now. the ball is in the republicans' court. they control the majority in the

house of representatives. it will be their responsibility. if they can't get 218 on boehner, perhaps they can get enough votes to make sure that the nation doesn't default. i think that is the responsibility of the house of representatives. >> bottom line, though, if there's some similarities as some have suggested between harry reid and john boehner's proposals, both essentially are two-step proposals. the extension and the length of the extension is really the -- one of the dividing issues. are you seeing a compromise that ends up with a two-step proposal and perhaps the duration of the debt ceiling raise? >> the difference between the two-step proposals is harry's two steps takes it beyond the election and deal with the debt ceiling immediately. i think the american public, you know, as much as we're concerned about the global economy, as much as we're concerned about the national economy, i'm concerned about everybody's

house hold economy. we've had more calls coming into our office and people asking me, andrea, what should i do with my money? should i take it out of the bank? should i put it in a safer fund. what's going to happen? it was fresh in 2008 when the 401 k became 101 k. i do think there's a world of difference between the two proposals. and that harry's is far more preferable. >> and before i let you go, i've got to ask you about congressman wu now saying that he's going to resign after the debt ceiling votes are over. this is another set back. it gets you out of a long drawn out controversy, but another embarrassment for the party. >> well, it's a sad day. i think that david wu did the right thing for his family and for himself and for the institution. we can only wish him welch i've spoken with david personally.

he has said that he intends to fight this outside of congress. i think that's a wise decision on his part. i think his family. i just pray for him. this is not a town that doesn't offer a lot of compassion to people. i think it was trueman that said you want a friend here, get a dog. her dear cleej john dingle says we bury the bodies warm here. i do have respect for david the way that he has decided to exit. >> did you urge him to resign, sir? >> i don't think you can urge anyone to do something that isn't in what they think is in the best interest of their family and themselves. i do tell them that i thought he should take that into being his uppermost decision especially in lieu of what our other colleague experienced just weeks ago. >> thank you very much, congressman larson, the head of the democratic caucus.

good too see you. . and rick perry in 2012. martin on when it's not a mart of if, but when. the politico briefing next on "andrea mitchell reports." i love that my daughter's part fish.

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so will he or won't he? texas governor rick perry is making all the moves toward becoming a candidate for president. he was recently briefed by national security officials. he's been meeting with a steady stream of potential contributors. john thon martin is politico senior writer. what do you think is going to happen and when? i guess the question is now when? before ames, after ames? >> it does seem increasingly a matter of when not if. as we learn with haley barbour you never know what's actually going to happen. it does seem now like some time not just after ames, but also after this day of prayer that he's having in houston next month you'll see governor perry move to get into the race.

they're in no rush. they're taking their time to a make sure that the money is there for them to launch a serious campaign. secondly, the grassroots support is there. that's why you see them in these recent weeks having the governor call activists in iowa and new hampshire and have donors come down to austin and meet with him to get to know each or. that's their way of feeling out if lst the grassroots and financial support there for a campaign. >> it's not clear sailing, i guess not for anyone mike huckabee taking a shot at rick perry saying texas governor reck perry is still flirting with a run for all his new fund commitment to hyper conservatism, he'll get to discuss why he supported proabortion, prosame sex marriage rudy giuliani last time. >> ouch. >> welcome to the nfl. that just shows a peak from huckabee and did not appreciate

that the texas governor endorsed rudy juligiuliani. >> there's some history there. governor perry supported giuliani. governor huckabee has a long memory. governor perry is going to face some serious challenges if he does decide to run. he's got a jobs message in texas. he's got a pretty pure conservative record on a lot of issues that i think will appeal to both pragmatic minded and more true believers in the republican party. that said, in a general election scenario he's going to have to answer the question of how he can play in swing states, the pennsylvanias, the ohios, the wisconsins, the michigans. that's going to be a taller order for him. how to make the case for why he's going to be a strong general election candidate. i do think if he does good in this primary, you'll see that message used against him by his gop rivals of yes, governor

perry can win a primary, but how can you play in the fall. >> do you get this from some republican king makers that it's anyone by michele bachmann in iowa candidate to go up against mitt romney? >> they're definitely looking for a bachmann alternative. you see the first sort of signs of a stop bachmann movement stirring in the republican ranks. i think what perry gets you if you are conservative is somebody that is right on the conservatism. it's tough to get to his right. but he's a governor. he's been a governor for ten years. so he can make the argument about lek tiblity as well in a way that i think she has a tougher time making. that is at the core of his appeal for republican activists. >> the longest serving governor, in fact. >> yep. >> thanks so much. good to see you. >> thank you, andrea. also making headlines today, the financially strapped postal service may be closing nearly 4,000 local post offices around

the country. more than one in ten of its retail outlets. the possible closures are a response to continuing budget woes that have caused the agency to suspend payments to pension funds and eliminate bonuses to workers. in las vegas a hang up in congress has halted construction on a new control tower at the airport. dozens of construction workers are out of work because republican house members refuse to fund the faa project. actually, the faa budget, workers were told not to show up for work yesterday to finish the new air traffic control tower and now tax footers will foot the $8700 bill for every day the project is delayed. there are other projects around the country as well. the recession has caused a historic wealth gap between whites and minorities. the greatest in a quarter century. with hispanic families suffering the largest single decline. according to the new study based on census data, hispanic household wealth fell by 66% from 2005 to 2009, while black

families lost 53 innocent in contrast, white income fell by 16%. and are are you ready for some football? nfl commissioner roger goodell announced an agreement for a ten-year contract lending the four-month long lockout. today nfl players can report to team facilities. teams can also begin to sign 2011 draft picks and rookie free agents. the settlement means that preseason games can begin august 11th on schedule. way to go. and in norway today lawyers for the accused mass murder say that their client's actions point to a pattern of instanity. they're unsure if they will enter that plea in his trial. nbc's jay gray has the very latest from oslo. jay, what are you hearing from the legal team? >> reporter: good evening. well they are saying the same thing that owl of his observations are insane but won't commit to using that as defense in this case.

they also say that everyone trying to apply rational to an irrational situation won't work. they admit that there's a problem with their client. his manifesto, his defense lawyer said i don't want to talk about that. that's not something i want to do, i don't want that message spread. it's obvious that they're having problems defending him as well. it's a struggle for the defense team to do that. it's also a struggle for so many here in oslo. the makeshift memorial behind me continues to grow. hundreds of people coming down throughout the day. take a look behind me. you can see all the flowers here, a sea of flowers is what they're calling it, the candles, the poems, the flags they continue to bring them down day and night. people pausing some for hours. others for just minutes. andrea, they continue to cry, they continue to console each other and say they need the strength of being together to get through this. >> jay gray, just devastation there. thank you very much. and up next, inside the mitt romney campaign for president with john harwood.

plus, what would default mean for you from car loans to mortgages, we'll break it all down next with ron on "andrea mitchell reports." ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors. stunning visuals, intelligent performance. this is visibly smart. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms

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geico, saving people money on more than just car insurance. with only one week to go, markets seem to be treating the august 2nd deadline as a nonevent. will it take a total failure here in washington to trigger a market meltdown? joining me now ron, great to see you. we heard from bob corker saying there's two or three weeks. we've got some running room here. jack lew saying not so much. august 2nd is the real date. you never know when things are going to start melting down. why are the markets shrugging this off? >> i guess they assume this is the typical washington theater gown to the deadline. it looks different to me than that. it looks like there's a real failure of the two sides to have any negotiating room that would

lead us to a broad, deep agreement. one analyst who rites for the potomac research group says a downgrade may be inevitable because of this intense dysfunction in our political process. >> christine lagarde was warning this is really serious stuff. here she's coming from the posture of not just wall street, but of europe which has faced these meltdowns and here the united states which has always been a safe haven issing look like greece or one of the other countries. >> looks like, but not like. we're not bankrupt. we're not greece. what we have here in the immortal words, a failure to communicate. this is very serious. if it does lead to a debt default, car loans -- as the

president said last night, we could see in a drop in the dollar, a spike in interest rates that would lead to higher mortgages, higher credit loans. a double dip recession which would be the most dangerous part. tax receipts would fall further and we'd be in this vicious cycle of bigger deficits. there is a risk. there are obviously a couple of weeks with which to play. next tuesday may not be the drop dead point in this process. until and unless they get an agreement, wall street will get increasingly nervous as we move toward whatever day that? ? >> thank you so much, ron. how is all this playing in the presidential race? how is presumed front runner mitt romney dealing with washington's debt ceiling crisis? john harwood is live in boston and has been looking inside the romney camp. he's basically not dealing with it, is that fair to say? that he's kind of flying over the dysfunction that we see in

washington in both parties. >> reporter: absolutely, andrea. mitt romney has been keeping his head way down. he did come out of the cave to issue a tweet where he criticized president obama for historic failure on the debt limit noting that harry reid isn't even proposing tax increases anymore. it was the plain vanilla response on the debt limit. that's what he's been saying. yes, raise it, but also cut spending. this is a very risk averse front runner that's because he's a vulnerable front runner. what mitt rom niece' been doing is trying to nurse his lead, save his money, he know it's a long campaign. when feistier candidates like rick perry get in the race, if he does, he's going to be very formidable. right now as one of the romney advisors told me, we have

message disciplinite is. >> and just trying again to fly over. >> reporter: absolutely. tim pawlenty is engaging in back and forth with michele bachmann for a simple reason, she's a big threat to him in iowa. he's trying to get some traction. mitt romney is keeping iowa at some distance from his campaign. there may be an under the radar effort in the straw poll. he's focused on preserves his 20-point lead in new hampshire. as long as nobody's attacking him, he doesn't need to engage and the shorter this race can be as long as he holds the lead, that's the better for mitt romney. >> john harwood, thank you so much up there in boston. and powering women to be business leaders in areas that you would least expect it. anita mcbride, laura bush's former chief of staff joining us. first here's brian williams telling david letterman about what happened when he flew to

upstate new york with regis philbin to accept his broadcaster of the year award. >> we get on the pilots board first and then instruct you on how to -- you have to close yourself inside the thing. so reg who is really the size of a plush toy -- >> he's a small toy. >> he goes rummaging around the back of the plane. i look many the back of the plane, he said i found dinner. first of all, i'm back here for good. i've got a new hip. i'm never getting out of the back of this plane. regis finds the cheese-its and does two hits of cheese-its, the most cheese-its i've ever seen. he said tap the pilot on the shoulder for me, i have a question. do you have any liquids? do you have something to watch the cheese-its down, the pilot says -- i'm dying, i'm thinking it gets better, the pilot say nst in the cooler next to you.

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. i'm thomas roberts. coming up on "news nation", how would president reagan handle this decrisis facing our country? i'm going to talk to president reagan's one of the boast known advise source, saying the late president would have takeled the crisis differently. some employers say they're not interested in hiring anyone who's been out of work for any length of time. is that a fair practice? detail just ahead. a small group of women in afghanistan have been given an important role negotiating alongside 60 afghan men trying to broker a lasting peace for their country. but the nine women claim that old habits die hard. and they have been margin alzheimer'sed in the talks. they aren't the only onings. while girl schools have been reopened in that country and the burka is no longer required by

law, afghan women are treated like second-class citizens. one group in the u.s. is seeking to change that, not just in afghanistan, but other oppressive countries around the world. anita mcbride is now a senior to the george w. bush foundation and joins me now. we're taking about the constitute of economic empowerment for women. you had a two-day conference here. it's a step up. that's the theme of this conference. we've seen afghan women and women from rwanda from other conflict zones who have really become empowered to become entrepreneurs? >> absolutely. this organization raep believes that freedom and democracy in the spirit of entrepreneurship is the path to peace. it's founded by a woman entrepreneur, an american woman who really believes this and has created this program. it's the fifth year of peace through business bringing women from post conflict countries, afghanistan and rwanda. these women -- the development

in sustainability of their country won't happen without them. and particularly in a lace like rwanda where the majority of the population is more than half of course is women, but they have been in leadership positions out of necessity because of the genocide and so many men were killed. and in afghanistan the women don't want to be seen as victims. they want to be seen as the leaders that they are. there won't be progress there unless the women are there. >> this cuts across every line. laura bush was a tremendous leader on this well acknowledged. hillary clinton as secretary of state has been former secretary of state madeleine albright has been the leader here. so this is something in both parties in and out of politics and government which really does unite the importance of supporting women and not letting them become afterthoughts as we begin to draw down in and stan. >> absolutely. you hit upon an important point that i think is encouraging for americans to hear that there

is -- there are certain projects and policies that transition very well from one administration to the next. the u.s. afghan women's council is a great example of that established by president bush in 2002, continued by the obama administration, secretary clinton has hosted our council. members of the administration are a part of the council including an ambassador, the white house just hosted our most recent meeting two weeks ago where ambassador grossman who's now the envoy for afghanistan and pakistan told us this is a very fragile, difficult time. we know that for afghanistan. as we begin to draw down, what thauz that mean for their path to peace and stability and progress? american businesses will tell you if we want them to invest there, they won't do it without the presence of american security, that's very important for our government to know. >> are american businesses really willing to invest in afghanistan? >> they are.

one of the most recent projects is with kate spade. kate spade has gone into afghanistan in the last year. they surveyed what tn opportunities are there for marketable products and going te marketableable products, and afghanistan has the third largest producer of cashmere, and they want a product made by afghan women and sold in kate spade stores here and online and they are willing to invest a lot of money i might add, but they have the support of the u.s. government and the u.s. military to give them access. >> anita mcbride, what a pleasure to see you again. >> thank you so much. what political stories will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that is up next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. . as well as your boat, motorcycle, rv, and snowmobile. and even your retirement and your life. not many insurance companies can say that. but allstate can. now that you know the truth, know this: the more of your world you put in good hands,

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jo . and which political headlines will make the headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza joins us. we are talking about the debtor house vote or and if it goes or

doesn't go? >> well, the next 24 is rapidly turning into "debt talk with andrea and chris." we are talking again about the debt, and we expect though, and expect is a keyword in the negotiations where so much is changing every minute, but we expect jonl boehner the bring up the two-stage plan in terms of trying to get the debt ceiling extended six months, and the second phase being the larger set of cuts. >> do you take seriously this warning from jim gordon that they don't have the votes or -- >> well, i was just -- >> and the 117 or whatever they need? >> well, i was going to cite jim jordan the head of the republican study of conservatives in the house, and you take it seriously and start from the belief that there are 20 to 30 members of the michele bachmann category who simply will not vote for anything that raises the debt ceiling. already there, they are down to 200 and assume it is 20, and they are down to 117 and any

further erosion is a problem that is complicated math problem for john boehner to get enough conservatives to vote for it and a handful of democrats to get it passed. i cannot envision anything passing with 150 or 160 votes, but if it does pass it is going to be 223 or 224. >> well, chris cillizza counting the votes already. thank you very much. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we have a big show tomorrow. on the show, senate budget committee chairman kent conrad and congressman tom price from the budget committee, and former white house deputy press secretary bill burton and the new york times business reporter andrew sorkin and lawrence o'donnell host of "last word with lawrence o'donnell" on msnbc, and my colleague tamron hall is off today, and thomas roberts is standing in for her. >> we are following the latest

at the white house where lawmakers are trying to come to a compromise. now in order to prevent default which is seven days away, what happens if america's credit rating is ultimately downgraded. and david wu says he is resigning from office amid a sex scandal, but not immediately, and we will have details on "newsnation" up next. 3q double shift... i need a break.

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you save. >> right now on "newsnation," who will win the debt divide as capitol hill web sites and phone lines report being at maximum capacity, and words from the democratic house may support a republican plan. insane, the lawyer for the confessed gunman behind that massacre in norway says that his client took drugs and thought he was starting a war when he launched that brutal attack. too unemployed to work? why some employers are asking the job candidates to have a job before they apply. it is the "newsnation" gut check. plus, the god particle, is it real? scientists say they could know by the end of